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Presidential Couple invited to White House

President Andrzej Duda and First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda have received an official invitation to visit the White House in June, the head of the President's Office Krzysztof Szczerski said on Friday.

"We have received an official invitation for President Andrzej Duda and his wife to visit the White House in June this year. The details of the visit are now to be arranged between the two presidents' offices and will be announced by the American side, as it is the host," Krzysztof Szczerski said.

The presidential aide pointed out that President Duda had planned an visit to the US in June to discuss the economy. "From our point of view, it would be most convenient if we could arrange one major visit to include both Washington and the economic component. But we will still talk about that," the presidential minister said.

He added that it is not excluded that, just as it was last year, the president will travel to Washington after the summit of the Three Seas Initiative (promoting regional cooperation among countries situated between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas), to be held in Slovenia on June 5-6.

Krzysztof Szczerski added that the Three Seas Initiative is likely to be one of the topics discussed by the Polish and US presidents.

The head of the President's Office also announced that in the last week of May he is going to Washington to discuss the political component of President Duda's US visit.

The Polish presidential couple made their first visit to the White House on September 18 last year. Andrzej Duda met then with Donald Trump in the White House, where both presidents signed a bilateral declaration on cooperation in security, defence, energy, trade and investment.

During a press conference, the Polish president expressed hope that President Trump will take a decision to send more troops to Poland, as well as to build, jointly with Warsaw, a permanent US military base, the so-called "Fort Trump". The US president assessed that such a base could be useful for increasing the level of security of both countries.

Last week, Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said that everything indicates that negotiations with the United States will be successfully concluded this year and that the US military presence in Poland will be strengthened.

In March, the President's Office said that Andrzej Duda had invited the US President to visit Warsaw on September 1, for the observances of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two. "We are upholding this invitation and we know this date has been included in President Trump's calendar," Szczerski has said recently. (PAP)